


It's Always Been For Real

by fallendarlings



Category: Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: Coming Out, Fluff, M/M, bucky is the internet's favorite assassin, damn you ara, i tried to make it angst i really did, im gonna lose my reputation as a ruthless fucker who will cause anyone pain, im honestly so mad I couldn't make this angst more, proposal, steve has a youtube channel, talk of eloping, watch out though ill be coming at you with angst soon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2016-08-08
Packaged: 2018-08-07 10:03:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7710835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallendarlings/pseuds/fallendarlings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>based on the prompt that steve made a YouTube to share his coming out story. </p>
<p>I deviated from the prompt that was given I hope I don't get killed. I just went with what was happening in my head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Always Been For Real

"No more hiding." Steve stared intensely into the camera he'd set up (with Bucky's help because he still wasn't that handy with electronics). "I've been hiding things my entire life- and that's a long fucking time. I'm done. It's time America really knows who their beloved Captain is."

"Jesus. You're not giving a battle plan to an entire army, Stevie. Not so formal. Start from the beginning." Bucky grinned at him from behind the camera, his twinkling eyes belying the gruff tone of his voice. 

"The beginning?" Steve blinked, frowning.

"Tell the real story. Not the one in the museum." 

"Alright. From the beginning." Steve crossed his legs, running a hand through his messy bed hair. No doubt the Internet would turn that into one of those gif things. Let them have their fun. "Let's see. While I was in the ice, it seems like the entire world bent who I am to fit their own agenda. More specifically, the conservative Christian agenda. Not to offend you, but I think those beliefs are shit and I don't agree with them. Sorry."

Bucky snorted. 

Ignoring him, Steve plunged forward. He was going to get so much shit for this, but the end goal made it worth it.  And yeah, there was probably a complicated process to coming out when you're a celebrity. He didn't agree with that either. This was happening his way and his way only. 

Pepper was going to kill him. 

Whatever. 

"I grew up down in DUMBO. In the thirties and forties, that was a primarily queer neighborhood. From my earliest memory, it wasn't uncommon to see men holding hands with other men or getting blown in an alley every time I went outside the door. So you can cross me being homophobic off that list. I've seen men _killed_ for being in love." He glanced up at Bucky, offering him a soft smile. They'd gotten lucky, never getting caught. "Steve Rogers, and by association, Captain America supports the LGBTQIA+ community wholly. I support men marrying men and women marrying women and everything in between. Don't put words in my mouth on that. I've said my piece." He took a breath, plunging forward. 

"I probably would have died long before the war ever started. If not for Bucky. And not just because he saved my dumb ass from hundreds and hundreds of fights. We met on the first day of first grade when he told me he liked my art, after a bunch of other kids made fun of me for sitting out the recess games to draw. I had just gotten over whooping cough and I was much too weak to run and play but they didn't know and wouldn't have cared. There was only Bucky. He ended up being the one who would sit by me when I was sick and Ma had to work. He was always there for me. To the end of the line and back again."

"You make me sound like a saint." Bucky wrinkled his nose at him. 

"Shut up, you're _my_ saint." He moved the camera out of the way and scooted forward until their knees touched. "I'm nothing without you. You know that. Without you I'm just an empty shell with no reason to live. So I run into all the trouble I can find headfirst and hope I don't survive it."

"Stevie." Bucky's voice cracked, his arms moving around Steve, cradling him against his chest, much the way he used to when they were much younger and innocent. "I swear to god, I would fight my way back from the dead a million times over if it meant keeping you from being so reckless."

"I don't know about a million, but we're on at least two times now." Steve mumbled into Bucky's shoulder. When they'd been fourteen, Bucky had gone and gotten himself stabbed in the chest when he'd attempted to scam a bunch of gamblers out of their money to buy Steve a birthday present. Steve hadn't been able to find out if he was alive or not for a full week and in his terror and anger, he'd ended up picking a fight with the very same men that had landed Bucky in the hospital. Maybe it was irony that they'd ended up in the same room after Steve had been brought in, beaten half to death. But whatever it was, he'd never been so relieved in his life and he'd ignored his injuries and Bucky's yelling for him to stay the hell in bed and his own fear of ruining their friendship and he'd walked across the room, grabbed Bucky and kissed him hard. Their first kiss. 

Bucky had returned it wholeheartedly. 

"Never again. I'm staying alive and so are you." Bucky's flesh hand cupped his cheek, tilting his head up to press their lips together. Steve closed his eyes, letting himself melt into the touch. He was like a river and Bucky was the drop off where the waterfall formed. He would fall for Bucky every day for as long as he lived. Every part of him was drawn to Bucky. _belonged to him_ even. They were connected always. One could not truly exist without the other. 

"Love you." He whispered against Bucky's lips. "Love you, love you, love you."

"Love _you_." Bucky pulled back with a breathtaking smile, placing a chaste kiss against his forehead. "Go finish your video, doll."

Steve just shifted so he was leaning against Bucky, reaching out to turn the camera to face them. Bucky immediately tensed slightly but he  didn't tell Steve to move so he was out of the frame. He did give the camera a stony look though. 

"I don't remember what I was saying." Steve shrugged. It didn't matter. "So I'll just get straight to the point. Congratulations, to the few historians and the thousands of teenage girls who speculated that Bucky and I might have been more than friends back in the day. We've been together since 1933. And also, we're getting married."

"Wait, what?" Bucky looked over at him with wide eyes.

Steve smiled widely at him, reaching into the pocket of the sweatpants he was wearing and pulling out a small velvet box. He shifted so he was on one knee, though with both of them having been sitting in the floor, it meant he was looking down at Bucky rather than up. All that be damned. He was doing this proposal the proper way. He had waited long enough for it. "You used to say to me that I'd find someone someday who could sweep me off my feet with a look, who would make me happy even on my worst days. You told me I'd marry that girl. But it's no girl who does that for me. It's you. It's always been you, it will only ever be you. So it seems fitting, since it's finally legal and all, that I ask you to marry me. Whaddaya say, Buck? To the end of the line with me for real?"

"You stupid punk. It's always been for real." Bucky grabbed the front of his tshirt with his metal fist, yanking him into a hard kiss. "Of course I'll marry you. I _love_ you."

Steve grinned into the kiss, fumbling for Bucky's left hand, sliding the custom made ring onto his metal finger. "I love you back."

The camera was forgotten as they traveled to the bedroom and by the time they emerged the next morning, it had long since gone dead. Steve instructed Jarvis to cut the extra footage and upload it to YouTube as he mixed waffle batter. Bucky shuffled up behind him, looping his arms around his waist and pressing a kiss between his shoulder blades. 

"Can we have bacon too?"

"You ate the last of it yesterday and I forgot to put it on the list to get more delivered so if you want bacon you better go steal some from Nat or Tony's kitchen."

"Who's stealing what from my kitchen?"

Steve stiffened and groaned at the voice coming from the hallway. He should have expected it, but honestly, the video couldn't have been online for more than ten minutes. "Tony, what did I tell you about dropping in without warning?"

"Oh, don't worry, Cap. I checked with Jarvis to make sure no scandalous gay morning sex was happening before I pulled rank on the building and overrode your _keep out_ command." Tony sauntered into the room, wearing a fleece iron man onesie. "Which, by the way, it would have been nice if you'd told us that you and Android over here have been getting it on since the stone ages."

"Excuse me, but you're the one who claims to be a genius-"

"Which I _am_."

"And yet you literally somehow missed our relationship when we've made no move to hide it." Bucky glowered at Tony, finishing Steve's sentence. "But now you know so congrats I guess. So does the whole world."

"To be fair, you don't really engage in any actual pda that couldn't be read as platonic. Sure, there's always a lot of hugging and general _being attached at the hip, co dependent, I don't know how to function like a normal human unless you're touching me in some way_ shit, which- oh. Yeah, I guess all the I love you bro stuff really isn't platonic. I'm going blind in my old age." Tony looked so distressed it was almost funny. "Am I the only one who didn't know?"

"Yeah, probably."

"Curses!" Tony shook his head and spun on his heel, walking toward the door. He paused with his hand on the knob and looked over his shoulder. "By the way, Pep is mad at you for creating a media shitstorm, so you're dealing with that." He walked out the door but cracked it open again a second later and poked his head back in. "Oh, and congrats on the engagement. It's gonna be the event of the century, I'll make sure of it. And nobody is stealing my bacon."

When he was gone, Steve exchanged a glance with Bucky. "You trust him with the wedding planning?"

"Nope. You?"

"No way in hell." Steve flipped a waffle onto the already tall stack and passed the plate to his fiancé. "Since we've already caused a ruckus, what say we just elope? We'll kidnap Sam and Nat as witnesses and take off for Vegas or something and just do it."

"There is no human way we could kidnap Nat." Bucky pointed his fork at Steve, grinning playfully. "But I'm game to try."

***

As expected, the Internet had varying reactions to the big coming out video and the proposal. The conservatives were angry. But most everyone else was thrilled. When Steve had told Jarvis to delete the extra footage, apparently the AI hadn't thought that the bit of conversation that had happened off screen qualified as extra and it had ended up online with the rest of the video. 

The Internet decided Steve and Bucky needed hugs, but also that they were probably hugging each other (and more) enough to satisfy that need. The popularity of fanfictions and art about the two of the skyrocketed, and if Steve created a secret tumblr where the hundreds of drawings he had of Bucky found a welcome home, no one had to know. 

Except Tony, of course, who was now paranoid and needed to know everything. But that was nothing new. 

Steve found he liked making YouTube videos, talking about controversial subjects (which Pepper both hated and loved him for). Bucky only appeared in the background of videos and only for a few seconds at a time. But even in that tiny window, the world came to love him as much as they loved the rest of the Avengers- maybe even more.

And it was good.

**Author's Note:**

> come tell me how disappointed you are in this weak attempt at angst:  
> Twitter: buckycurls  
> Tumblr: angstplums


End file.
